The Burgess boys are Jim and his younger brother, Bob. Both lawyers, the elder is married and has
defended a famous case which made him a household word during the trial. Bob has
a twin sister, Susan, who neither brother is too fond of. Bob is divorced and working for Legal Aid. Jim has always denigrated the less successful
Bob. The brothers have escaped to
Brooklyn from their hometown, the small mill town of Shirley Falls, Maine, but
Susan has remained behind. She is also
divorced and has a troubled son, Zach.
Shirley Falls has had an influx of Somali immigrants who are Muslim and
not well accepted or understood in the community. For no real reason, Zach pitches a frozen pig’s
head into their small mosque during Ramadan, causing a situation which reaches
the nightly news. When the brothers
return to Shirley Falls to help with Zach’s legal defense, family secrets and tensions
are revealed. I liked the book less than
the author’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive
Kittredge, but it is still a good study in sibling relationships and the
tensions between immigrants and small-town Americans. 320 pp.
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